The Blue Mask is the eleventh studio album by singer-songwriter Lou Reed. It was the first album released after Reed left Arista Records and returned to RCA Records. It returns to the stripped-down sound of his previous group, the Velvet Underground, with only guitars, bass and drums. It also follows the Velvet Underground stylistically by counterpointing and transposing jarring feedback-driven rock with tough and tender ballads, melodic distortion of a magnitude not heard since the "Sister Ray" days.

Big Blue Sun ​is the musical efforts of guitarist and songwriter Barrie Deatcher. Based in Sherwood Park, Alberta and influenced by bands such as Rush, Blue Oyster Cult and whoever else Barrie is listening to on any given day… From straight ahead rock to acoustic guitar tunes and back again, Big Blue Sun cut a wide swath through pop music.

Five CD set containing a quintet of albums from the Rock great packaged in miniature LP sleeves and housed in an attractive slipcase. Includes the albums The Blue Mask, Legendary Hearts, Live In Italy, New Sensations, Mistrial.

EZ Mask is an easy to use interactive image masking tool capable of extracting almost any object in an image–even if you are dealing with fine hair detail, smoke, or reflections. To work this magic, EZ Mask iteratively estimates the transparency value for every pixel in the image, based on a small sample of foreground (what you want to cut out) and background pixels marked by simple strokes on the image. There is even a Refine mode where EZ Mask automatically updates the mask or composite as you paint a stroke. In addition, the foreground colors are estimated in the semi-transparent areas to create a seamless composite.

Pianist Larry Vuckovich revisits his landmark 1980 recording on this combined reissue and new release. Prefiguring the much-lauded work of Dave Douglas and the Tiny Bell Trio, guitarist Brad Shepik, and even John Zorn, the Yugoslavian-born Vuckovich combines the ethnic melodies and rhythms from his native Balkans with modal jazz. Never as avant-garde as his contemporaries, Vuckovich nonetheless pushes the boundaries of both jazz and folk styles. The original tracks featured the brilliant vibe playing of Bobby Hutcherson, who unfortunately does not reprise his role on the four new pieces.

Dan Nimmer is an American jazz pianist and composer. As the title suggests, Nimmer's second release for Venus Records is a tribute to Wynton Kelly, who was a swingy, bluesy and funky genius and a groove master who worked with Miles Davis and others. Jimmy Cobb, the veteran drummer who played with Kelly in the historic "Kind of Blue" session, bridges the two generations and validates Nimmer's efforts with his impeccable groove.

This is not the vintage Don Covay sound that many of his fans may know about and you won't find any of his big hits on this CD but this 1969 album sounds like a labor of love, something that Covay was dying to record for a long, long time. You can hear the sincerity, vitality and enthusiasm on every track. Wonderful album. As other reviewers have noted. this is a bit of a hybrid. Not a traditional blues album by any means, but one that mixed blues with soul and a dash of rock too. Very satisfying results. There are times when Covay is singing, that I swear it's Mick Jagger. The vocal inflections are that similar sometimes. But the real highlights are the songs themselves, plus the guitar playing. Something to savor.

It is 1948 in LA and Ezikeal "Easy" Rawlins, an African-American World War II veteran, is looking for work. At his friend's bar, he is introduced to a white man, DeWitt Albright, who is looking for someone to help him find a missing white woman assumed to be hiding somewhere in LA's Black community. This woman, Daphane Monet, happens to be the fiancée of a wealthy "blue blood," Todd Carter, who is currently the favorite in the city's mayoralty race. Daphane Monet is known to frequent the Black jazz clubs in LA. Easy, innocently, accepts Albright's offer; however, he quickly finds himself amidst murder, crooked cops, ruthless politicians, and brutalizing hoodlums. This is a Chandler-esque "who-done-it" with an African-American theme.